Noah Anderson: How To Build A Personal Brand When You're Naturally An Introvert

0:00I was doing a corporate internship where I would be in office like twice a week. I was just in a cubicle staring at Microsoft Excel and writing code. I knew that I wanted to do something that brought me more excitement and had more of an impact. I was like, "Okay, I'm just going to start making YouTube videos with my fancy college jery, I

0:15guess." Today, I sat down with Noah Anderson, the creator who turned ice baths, self-improvement, and a relentless obsession with [music] doing hard things into an audience of over 1.4 million followers. met this guy and he was kind of just like, you know, I think you should make a movie about it because you're only going to do an Iron Man for the first time once. I felt that I was really making videos that a version of Noah 4 years ago could really attach to and figure out a lot of things about his

0:40own life. What were you focusing upon to allow you to show [music] up even when the numbers weren't necessarily there? Part of it was the vulnerability and storytelling. I'm done worrying about what others think of me and to prove it, I'm shaving my head. And then the other aspect was just having a lot more consistency [music] behind me with

0:57talking to a camera. What was the green light for you to say, "Okay, it is now time to pursue content creation full-time." I think it was I really don't want you to miss any of our future episodes. I'm going to ask of you to subscribe and make sure you turn the notification bell on. This will only help us do more podcasts like this, bring on even better guests so that you can learn more from it. I love all of

1:18you guys and let's get back into it.

1:25Noah, first and foremost, thank you so much for joining us here at Creator Unplugged. Thanks for having me, man. I'm excited. I I have so much that I want to break down with you. And there is literally so much that I personally admire and love about you. Your discipline, your resilience, your hard work, but I love your smile, man. I love how joyful you are. And I know I had told you this earlier, but when I watch your content, I watch your full documentary, I come out of it feeling happier, feeling joyful. Now, what's fascinating is that you're making me feel this way while doing some of the hardest human

1:59experiences. You're doing Iron Man prep, you're doing these crazy challenges. And so, my first question for you, I know it's not always easy, but where does this joy come from? Yeah. Um, I think for me a lot of it comes from my relationship with Christ, but also just like finding joy in the things that I'm excited about and like also being in a position now where I get to commit so much time to the things that like bring me joy. Uh, also just brings me more joy too because it's like I don't know, being a YouTuber, being a creative is such a cool career opportunity. And to be able to spend so

2:35much time doing things that get me excited, I think bring me a lot of joy in general. I've heard you say across several of your videos, this idea of stacking undeniable proof that we are exactly who we say that we are. I remember when I first heard that sentiment from Alexi and it really rung true for me cuz I actually grew up quite insecure and I didn't want to public speak. I I felt as

2:56though I was a terrible communicator. And I was always worried that these talents were just never something I could attain. But it was after relentless work, after a ton of reps where I've learned those skills and now I feel more confident. It's cool because I watch your journey and whenever you talk, it's like the achievement itself is cool, but you're thinking about it completely bigger. You're like the person that I'm becoming as a resultant of this hard work. That is why I'm doing this stuff. And I'm curious, is that what drives you to do these incredibly

3:27difficult things? Yeah, I think just like finding myself along the way has, it's kind of cliche for sure, but like along the process of doing something really challenging, along the process of going from zero subscribers to my YouTube channel to where I'm at now. And just like building that slow confidence along the way where I was so nervous to be like talking in front of a camera a couple years ago, and now I feel a lot more confident doing that. I was really not a great endurance athlete a couple years ago and now I feel that I'm figuring that out along the way. And it's just like as I

4:01continue to show up for myself in all of those different places in my life, like being able to see the end result of like getting better at that thing is cool for sure. or the achievement is cool, but I think the confidence that I build in myself along the way and like the documentary being the title being proving myself right has just been such a common theme for me in the past couple years. And I think I found that both through the fitness and the journeys within the videos that I'm making, but also the experience of building my platform um on social media in general, too, where it's just like it's a long

4:35grind and there's a lot of days where like there's a lot of people around you that don't necessarily feel that it's a smart move or like maybe they don't say that directly, but there is always a little bit of condescending uh tones around it, I think, in general. But um it's always been something that I've been excited about doing and I just didn't do it for such a long time. And then finally I got to the point where I was just like this is what I want to do. I'm going to try it and if I fail I'll fail very publicly

5:04but I'm okay with that. So I don't know. Take me back to 2023. So when you had graduated and you're looking at this traditional career in front of you. I know that you actually had this Excel job as you detail it literally lined up and you've worked your tail off to even put yourself in that situation. But there was a misalignment as in you have this in front of you. You feel as though these years that maybe coming out of college you you would work the traditional job, you make your way through it, but there was something inside of you internally that felt a little bit disconnected to that career

5:36path. Take me back to what you were feeling and ultimately what made you choose that next step in your career. Yeah, I I think it was the summer between my junior and senior year of college where I was doing a corporate internship where I would be in office like twice a week, but every time I was there, I was just in a cubicle staring at Microsoft Excel and writing code. And for me, I just really wasn't excited about it. I think a lot of the reason I had gone down that path was just because I feel that that's what other people had expected of me, which ultimately is not

6:08a very good way to think about it. But um I got to that position like having just graduated and just feeling very misaligned and like I I knew that I wanted to do something that brought me more excitement and had more of an impact. Um, so I was like, "Okay, I'm just gonna start making YouTube videos with my fancy college degree, I guess, and not pursue this job." And then, um, I had always planned on doing a backpacking trip in Europe after I graduated. So, I did that from like February to like Mayish of 2024. And just had such a fun time like moving around and doing random stuff. And uh I

6:50I think that kind of brought a little bit more of like excitement back into my life too. And I was making YouTube videos the whole time. Nobody was watching them to be fair. But um it was finally a moment where like I was putting in consistency towards making videos. And I didn't care quite as much about how other people might perceive me trying to make videos. And I think like it wasn't at like I was never okay this is the moment where I'm going to completely change everything. It was kind of a slow iterative process of okay, I'm slightly confident that I can post long form YouTube videos because it

7:25feels like maybe there's not a lot of people like that I know in real life that will actually see them. But um eventually somewhere along the way I was like, "Okay, now I'm just going to start posting on my personal Instagram account." Because at first I was like maybe I make a different Instagram account so that people like won't see it as much. But I'm like well if this is what I want to do ultimately like I should just post on my Instagram account. So, I don't know. I just started doing that and then one thing led into another and found a job that was a lot more um like I did a like

7:56social media marketing type role for a protein drink brand and that was another moment where I was like, "Okay, this feels more attainable to be able to do something creative that I get excited about." And eventually it got to the point where YouTube got big enough and I was like, "Okay, now I just

8:11get to do this full-time, I guess." Which is so crazy and exciting and cool. So, yeah. When I say that I love you, I really do mean it. I had scrolled down all the way to your YouTube old videos and I saw 12 years ago top 10 backyard football catches. And then I saw another video and I saw satirical Sundays and I'm like, he's doing this with his friend at a very young age. And the reason why I want to bring that up is because a lot of creatives that I have met, whether they're big or whether they're small, a lot of it has to do

8:38with this fear of visibility that stops them from showing up online. this idea that people, their peers, their friends and family are going to judge them. You had mentioned that there was an element of that inside of you where you think about do I started on a different account and do I make sure that other people can't watch this? Were there moments in time where people did doubt you or let's say that you doubted yourself as you were visible online that made you want to quit or were you always strong enough mentally to be like I'm good. I'm gonna pursue this and I'm gonna make sure that I focus on the

9:05inputs. There are definitely moments where it felt a lot less attainable and felt like I wanted to kind of just give in. Um, especially for a long period of time where it was like posting very consistently and not seeing any sort of results from that. But I I think ultimately when I started really going for it again, like after I had graduated and I felt that I was really making videos that a version of Noah four years ago could really attach to and like figure out a lot of things about his own life from watching that. And that's kind of always been my thought process. Like

9:42whenever I'm making videos, I'm talking to an older version of me that hasn't figured out a lot of the things that I figured out at this point. And I don't know, I think that was sort of a motivating thing where it was like I don't really care too much how it what the actual result of it is because I really feel like I'm doing it for the love of the game, I guess. You know what I mean? Where it's like when you really enjoy the process of like I'm really proud of this piece of content. Like when I put out the documentary, it was a moment where I didn't really care too

10:15much if it got a ton of views or not because it was like I am so proud of this hourong video. You know what I mean? Like I think there's a certain level of just being excited about the actual thing you're putting out that makes it a little bit easier to kind of detach from the results a little bit. What about the content creation process makes you proud? So when you watched that documentary, what part of it made you think this is a piece that I'm so

10:44happy is going out to the world? I think the storytelling of it and just the vulnerability of this is my story and like I think a lot of content can sometimes especially within like the fitness space can kind of come across as unattainable. And my hope is that that video is very like hey I I have no idea like how this is going to turn out. I'm six months out from this thing right now. I've never ran a marathon before. I don't know. I I'm not super confident myself right now, but um as I kept showing up on those training days, like building that confidence, I think being

11:18able to tell that story and my own way, I think is what like I'm really proud of with that um documentary. If your goal was to make it attainable, you've done a good job because I felt like I could do an Iron Man immediately coming out of that and I have no business trying to do an Iron Man right now. [laughter] What's really phenomenal about what you had mentioned before is just fact that you were actually posting even when the results weren't necessarily there, right? So when someone looks at your content now, they're like, "Of course Noah's going to blow up. Of course Noah is going to have all these different

11:49successes cuz they see it now." Now, one of the first videos I've ever seen from you was the classic ice bath. It was the 75R and you were doing these daily ice baths and I'd go back to watch those contents again. What's fascinating is that as I was scrolling down, you were doing those ice bath videos even when it wasn't necessarily going viral

12:11at the time. Yeah. I want you to talk to me about that. What were you focusing upon to allow you to show up even when the numbers weren't necessarily there? Yeah. So, I actually did the ice bath series three times basically now. So the first time was long form YouTube and like the first part of the video would be that and then it would be my workout and then the second time was kind of similar to what I did for the 75 hard and then the third time was really when it took off was that that was kind of my biggest moment as a creator probably

12:42especially on Instagram. But um I think in general it was just like how can I say something that is valuable and how can I show up in a consistent daily basis I think was really important. Because yeah, like the hook isn't like the craziest thing and the video is literally me just sitting in the ice bath for three minutes. Like essentially the content is 2 minutes and 30 seconds to three minute monologue of me just talking and there's I mean from a traditional like social media standpoint it feels like it probably shouldn't work as well as it did. Um just because there's so much other engaging content

13:18to look at. But I I think for me it was just like, okay, how can I share a story from my perspective that's really unique to me that can be useful to other people? And I think as I continued to show up every day for it that people were like kind of like almost opening Instagram and being like, "Okay, I want to see Noah's ice bath today." and then like seeing that and then it's that daily reminder that I don't know like that you exist as a creator to a certain degree but also um yeah I think just leading with this is my story and yeah like the videos that did the best

13:56were always the videos where it was just a very like raw vulnerable experience that I shared like I was addicted to vaping nicotine for four years and it's like that video did like 18 million views on Instagram which is so ridiculous But I I I think people just connect to, oh, like this dude is kind of jacked now and he is getting in an ice bath [laughter] that seems great, but then he's like, oh yeah, but I had this issue that I've been struggling with and this is how I overcame it. I think that sort of like focusing on this is the value that can be derived from

14:30the video. I guess that's amazing. And you had mentioned you had done it three different times. By the way, kudos to you because most people can't even get past three posts. They'll do three posts and they'll say, "Ah, it's not for me cuz it's not working." For you to have three separate series and to give it your very best shot in each of them. I know you in the sense of you don't halfef effort anything obviously. So, you're the type of individual like I want to figure this out. I want to get my message out. What do you think actually changed on that third iteration? Was it that you were

14:59being more vulnerable and you were more focused on storytelling? Tell me in terms of the content what had shifted for that third iteration. For sure. I think part of it was the vulnerability and storytelling and then the other aspect element to it was just having a lot more consistency behind me with talking to a camera and like if I go back and look at the first time I did it, it's so tough to watch because it just is very it feels very slow and like I don't feel as connected to like me watching myself in those videos. And I think a big part of that is just showing

15:35up for a long period of time and getting better at talking to a camera because I mean it's a weird experience, right? Like I'm sitting out there and I'm just looking at a camera and it it it's hard to feel like connected to someone when like you're not actually there in general and it it just obviously you know that is a weird process like starting to talk to a camera and getting better at it over time. But um yeah, I think a big piece of it too is just that I was already a little bit bigger at the time. I had already spent so much time talking to a

16:09camera and getting better at that. So I think just the two years of consistency behind me was probably a big reason that um it was more successful the third time around. Yeah, I always say that I am an ambbervert, but I lean towards being an introvert a lot of times. People look at me creating content, they think, "Oh, he must be extroverted." But when you look at the actual process, it's me in my

16:33bedroom alone. It's me with the camera. I'm just talking directly to it. And it is a very awkward experience to be able to talk in a way that feels connected and natural, but you're actually not talking to anybody. It is this entire journey you have to go through. And for those that are listening into this right now that look at your journey and think,

16:51"Oh my gosh, he's a fantastic speaker." Again, they only look at your circumstances today. what can you say to motivate or inspire or teach them as their first step to actually putting themselves out there so that they can even get the reps in the first place? Yeah. Um, I would say a big thing that was useful for me was pretending that I'm talking to a specific person or a older version of me that needs to hear that I can quit vaping, right? Um, so I I think like in general trying to say, "Okay, I'm talking to

17:26this specific friend for this video." And I found that it's a lot easier and it feels more natural and authentic to me rather than like trying to talk to a huge audience. And I think that was kind of a nervous thing too as I was getting like into the ice bath series and realizing that every week there would be videos that would do millions of views and it's like oh gosh there's a lot of people potentially watching this. So, I think like reentering and saying, "Okay, I'm just going to talk to one person today." And that kind of has helped me be less like feel more natural to um

18:07like the way that I speak. I think your content is so thoughtful in many different ways, as in there are videos where you're doing literal essays, as in it is this wellthoughtout experience that people go through and you call it storytelling. I think of it as like a true immersive experience that you're taking me through. You do a phenomenal job of that. And my question to you is

18:26where do these ideas even come from? When you're thinking about the next video, the next series, you think about the YouTube video. How are you imagining the content ideas? A big part of it for me has just been personal struggles of this is what I struggled with and especially a lot of it is around fitness. So like this has been a useful tool for me for getting through this thing or like this is what I struggled with. So this is the framework and strategies that I've used

18:56to approach it. Um that's been a big sort of like way to think about how I'm going to make content and what I'm going to make content about. But the other big thing has just been like building it around a specific event. So whether that be a marathon or an iron man or some triathlon or whatever it is like okay I'm 20 days out from this here's everything I did today to get prepared for it or here's how I'm approaching this challenge and what I'm doing in this day for it because I think that that is almost more interesting to a certain degree than like the actual race

19:34day video of okay I did the race this is how it went like I feel that people can get connected to the hey I'm 27 days out from this race here's all my training today and I think like that's almost more important because ultimately the journey is what makes the the fitness like the final moment of like crossing the Iron Man finish line is not just in that moment like there's there's so much that went in before that so um just building it around um specific events I think makes the the story a little bit easier to come up with and the content ideas and then just talking to things

20:13that I've struggled with and how I've approached it. The reason why I watch your documentary twice and by the way you thank me for those two last night. Yeah. The reason why I watched it twice and you actually just brought it up. I see this video and I think going into it that it's going to be just the competition, just the race day, but you actually had the race as a very small segment of the entire documentary. And I thought that was brilliant because most people will just think about the singular event alone, but your storytelling leading up to that, the ability for you to showcase the

20:46struggle, the uncertainty. And of course, you're still doing it with a smile, but this this idea of you taking me through that experience was such a wonderful storytelling output. It just just the way that you were doing it. And I'm curious, was that intentional? So, you were thinking in your brain of I I know the journey is

21:02more important. I want to focus there. Yeah, for sure. Um, we had a ton of race day footage that I would have loved to use more too. But I think again there's a certain level of like I I never want the content to come across as like this is how amazing I am for finishing this thing. I want it more so to talk to this

21:23is the experience that I've had with it. And I think that because of that, we definitely trimmed down a a good amount of like the actual race day stuff, even though like it was so some of the footage was so amazing and I had [laughter] three people come out and shoot it and it was it was just a really cool cool side story on the documentaries. I had initially wasn't planning on doing a documentary. I um met this guy like basically a year ago at a coffee shop and I wanted to hire him to shoot short form videos for the full distance Iron Man and he was kind

21:55of just like, you know, I think you should make a movie about it because you're only going to do an Iron Man for the first time once. Like I think we should do a documentary. I was like, okay, like yeah, let's try it. And basically for eight months he was shooting for me all the time. He was essentially my unpaid intern. [laughter] And it was always like the idea that eventually I would be able to hire him on full-time. So like three, four months ago, um I actually hired him on to my team full-time. So that was a cool full story moment of someone that just

22:24believed in me so much and believed in what I was like trying to put out into the world. And I don't know, being able to have him on my team now is so cool. So yeah. What's his name? Let's do a quick shout out. His name's John. John Samberg. John Samberg. Hey, that's a big shout out to you. The first believer. I love

22:40it. Yeah. this this conversation that I want to bring up and you've actually mentioned the word vulnerable quite a few times already in this conversation and I think that's your superpower as a creator. It's one that I believe I share as well. Our human go denominator across all of us is struggle. It's not the successes. It's not the fancy washes or the lance uh fancy vacations or lavish lifestyles. It's not that. It is the hardship. It is the fact that all of us have experienced something to a certain extent. And I always try to get people to own their story, own their experiences, own even the weakest

23:14moments and to the level in which they share it is entirely up to them. But they have to own it first in order for them to even think about content ideas that can again build that depth of connection with their audience. But there are so many people out there that think that their story is not worth telling. There's so many people out there that like, oh, what do I have to share? I I'm just a college student or I work a 9 to5. There's nothing interesting about me. tell me what you would share with those particular people that might be doubting whether or not

23:41they actually have a story to share. Yeah. Um I would say that my story is certainly like there's nothing that's really that crazy about my story. Like I was a college student and I was someone who was just a little unsatisfied with where I was at in life and um started creating content around the same time where I started making a lot of different lifestyle changes and documenting that experience. And by no means is that like a crazy transformative like I wasn't addicted to hardcore drugs or I wasn't like I I

24:13don't feel that I have a crazy story. I'm a white kid from the suburbs. Like there's just I think that being able to like you said like actually grapple with the things that you struggle with and then being real and vulnerable about sharing those. I think that will ultimately um have like people can get connected with that especially like the authenticity of it and like this is my story right it's like I'm not manufacturing anything I'm not trying to make it something that it's not it's just like this is what I went through and this is what I've experienced so yeah there's something about creating content

24:55that for me feels therapeutic. It feels as though it's a self-improvement journey on its own. Now, you're a fan of doing hard things obviously and you put your body through a lot of demanding activities, but I I do believe that content challenges us in different ways. It forces us to grapple with different experiences. From the last 2, three years that you've been taking contecration seriously in that, how has

25:20contecration changed you personally? I I think it's made me a lot more self-reflective and like thinking through some things that maybe I wouldn't have thought through otherwise. And like I I think there's a big piece of being able to like talk through an experience and sort of teach someone else what I went through is like kind of that final learning process step I would say. So I I think for me content creation has been a big like self-improvement thing that I've gone through just because um you have to really like go you have to go through the experience and then you have to figure out what

26:02that experience actually meant and then to share that experience is kind of that final step of learning and growth for sure too. So yeah, I'm the exact same way. As in, yeah, when I think about my experiences, when I'm forced to reflect upon it, I actually discover elements of me that I didn't know about before. And as you tell more of these stories, you recognize, oh my goodness, there is a real character development. There was a person behind the scenes of all these actions and to share and display that to the world. It's it's a fascinating experience. And I want to ask you a as you've now had this trajectory of

26:40success and it's so welld deserved. How are you handling it? Meaning like this story of yours that's been intimate for you for such a long period of time. Now other people are hearing it and they're feeling as though they can champion your experience. How does that personally feel for you? It's a little weird. Um it's very exciting to many degrees because it's been a dream of mine for so long. But um to like have someone come up to me and be like, "Hey, the video where you were talking about quitting vaping like

27:10literally inspired me to quit vaping." It's like that's a really cool like actual like wow that actually changed your life in a certain way. Um has been really cool to see. Um but it's also just it still feels crazy that I'm able to just make videos for my job. So, it's another thing where I'm just like I need to lock in more. That's something I struggle with too in general is like doing too much all the time. I'm sure you struggle with that, too. Um, it seems like a lot of creators struggle with that. Um, especially now that I've added someone onto my team, it's like I

27:46need to really lock it. I don't know. But um yeah, it it it's been it's been really cool and mostly like 99.9% of the time like very positive like people are like reaching out and being very positive about what I've been doing. So um yeah, it's been cool. It's been exciting. It's fun to see this dream that I've had for so long like

28:09start to happen in front of my eyes. It's it's really cool. And I want to say congratulations. I mean, I know the end of 2025 where you you made the decision now to go fulltime with content and that's a huge leap and you've obviously worked your tail off to make this happen. I'm actually very curious. What was the green light for you to say, okay, it is now time to pursue content creation full-time. I think it was securing like the first major brand deal where I had the realization of, okay, I'm making this much money with my full-time job and this much money, which

28:44is my dream job and it's a lot more. [laughter] So I think it was kind of that like okay there's actual financial proof of concept now rather than like before it was kind of just YouTube AdSense which at the time wasn't a lot of money and like having a brand dealing having the realization that that could scale too a lot faster than working for someone else full-time and getting a salary. Um it it was kind of like that

29:11shared sort of a I like doing this more. I have way more joy and satisfaction in my life when I'm spending more time making videos and um yeah, the financial sort of piece of it was there. So, I was like, okay, let's just let's see what happens. And that was kind of the start of the 75 hard ice bath thing because I knew I needed to have something where that had structure to it rather than just being like, okay, I'll quit and see what happens. I'm always someone that's been very type A like conscientious and just like I need to have all these things in place which is

29:49kind of hard to sometimes as a content creator where you can literally do anything but I like to have at least a couple months of okay this is what I'm going to do for the next 75 days and that was super useful for me to just wake up every day I know I have a video for that day I just need to come up with something useful to say so yeah you definitely strike me as someone that has a calendar and [laughter] I'm excited to dig into this because you had a job, you were training in ridiculous types of training. In addition to the fact that you were creating content,

30:19there's got to be some form of system behind the scenes to help you manage your time. And I want you to talk to me about that. So, when you were balancing the job and you're doing all this, what was your time management strategies like? And then ultimately, now that you are a full-time creator, you still need that structure behind you in order for you to actually optimize upon your potential. Talk to me about the time

30:36management behind the scenes. Yeah. Um, I I think the biggest part of it is just like trying to do as much as possible. It seems weird, but like just optimizing as much time as I possibly can. Um, like, okay, I have an hour and a half before work after I wake up. That's going to be my swim. And then maybe I have 10 minutes to like start thinking about this other video concept. And I think kind of just like planning within my day, okay, for my hour commute to work, I'm going to think about this video or I'm going to listen to this podcast or like I had a lot more time within a day

31:16that I wasn't really fully capitalizing on. And um that can be a slippery slope to doing way too much. But um at the same time, it was kind of just like, okay, I got an hour and a half chunk here to train. I got an hour chunk here after work to train. and then I'm gonna work on YouTube until I go to bed and then I'm gonna repeat the next day. Um, to a certain degree that wasn't that wasn't going to be sustainable for a very long term period of time, but um, in my head I was getting closer and closer to that point of being able to

31:46take the leap to go full-time. So, I was like, "Yeah, I can do this for seven, eight months just like it was basically like full-time YouTube, full-time work, and full-time training." [laughter] [gasps] But, I don't know, I got through it. So, um I I think a big piece of it is just being excited about what I was doing too. Like there's no way I could like there's a quote somewhere I forget who it's by, but something along the lines of like when you are pursuing the thing that is so authentic to you and that you are so excited about that nobody can really compete with that

32:19because like it's you. So yeah, that authenticity in your content is so evident and you've done a great job whether it was intentionally curated or not. I can just see you Noah within your content and that's a huge compliment. I think it's the biggest compliment that you can give any creator. I want to ask you of how you're seeing YouTube in your own ecosystem as [clears throat] you have a platform on Instagram, you have a platform on Tik Tok, you have this YouTube platform as

32:43well. You are prioritizing YouTube and I just want to hear how you're thinking about now this ecosystem that you're building especially as your full-time creator. You're going to have to optimize upon that. Why YouTube? And ultimately, how do you imagine the other platforms playing a role? In general, I feel that all short form

33:00should push to YouTube. But the thing I found is that like a single video is not really going to do that. Like as I've had like more viral short form pieces of content that specifically are like, okay, go watch this long form YouTube video that um there are like strategies that you can use to do that. Like I did a video where I was comparing bikes to different price ranges and one of the se segments of that video I posted as a short form video said okay if you want to go see the final time for the fastest bike go watch the video and then ultimately people

33:33would just comment or like people would be like ah you didn't post the results I hate you whatever but like there's a really good long form video to go watch so I think it's weird because it's like it's hard to like when someone is like scrolling short form social media I think you're not very likely to actually go watch a long form YouTube video. So I think a big piece of short form is just like recognition of like my personal brand, my face, my name, and then that if someone's on YouTube later on and they see a thumbnail that I'm in, then that increases the likelihood of

34:07clicking on that thumbnail and watching the YouTube video. But in general, I would say that YouTube is where like I wanna I want people to see me and be like, you're one of my favorite YouTubers, right? Like I I I want to be known as a YouTuber. I want to be a long form creator. I think a big piece of it is just that you're able to tell a deeper story in a more meaningful story and that you can connect with your audience in a more meaningful way on YouTube and you make more money on YouTube, too. So, I I think there's like a lot of win-win-win

34:39elements to YouTube. So, I I want to ask you this personally. Talk to me about the Mandarins. Talking about Katu that's meant for where did this come from? [laughter] Um, so I had posted like I think it was it was a while ago, but it was day in the life of eating YouTube short like as an Iron Man triathlete and I just had happened to eat six mandrins throughout the day or something like that. Like it was kind of like probably a lot of mandrins and um I got a couple comments about it. It was actually like my two sisters who made the comments because at

35:14the time I just really there wasn't much traction, but they were both like, "Wow, that's a lot of Mandarins, whatever." And um those comments had gotten like five or six likes, which for me, if a comment got that many likes on a video, I was like, "Wow, that's that means something." So, I leaned into it a little bit more and then I did a video where I said the over under for today is I think it was 14 mandrins. And then throughout the day, I ended up eating 15, I think, to get the over. Um, and that was the first YouTube short that just like went crazy. So, naturally, I

35:47kind of went down that rabbit hole [laughter] a good amount. [gasps] Um, hopefully I haven't overplayed it, but definitely have leaned into it just because yeah, it it's just super silly and like yeah, I don't know. I probably like I wouldn't say I've ruined eating mandarins for myself, [laughter] but to a certain degree like I'll do a day where I'll eat 30 of them or something and it's like the next four days I'm not eating a man. [laughter] It's just too much. [gasps] When I was watching your content, I just started seeing you juggle mandarins while you were running and while you're walking through the video. I'm like,

36:23what what's going on? And [laughter] then I kept watching your videos and there's more of that. Cuties needs to sponsor you because obviously you're you're bringing them a lot of attention. 100%. I have not figured out a Mandarin sponsorship yet. That's the one thing we're missing. [laughter] Got to figure that out. This brings me to this this next step question, right? As in where are you taking all of this? When I say that I notice Noah in the content, and the reason why I say it's the biggest compliment ever is because you're not just one thing. And I think a lot of times creators who don't have longevity

36:57just do one thing over and over and over and over and over again and they can't branch out of that. And then over time obviously you as a human being will grow. You will evolve with different interests but no one will engage with that. But it's cool because as I see you do Iron Man training but you're also talking about mindset philosophy. You're talking about all these different things and it actually makes me understand Noah but because of that you've laid such a strong foundation for yourself and you have all these different opportunities in front of you. Where do you want to take all of this that you have built? I

37:24don't really know. Um, that's kind of something I'm trying to figure out next. I think to a certain degree, um, continuing down the Iron Man triathlon rabbit hole has been like slightly influenced by the fact that I know I could document a build around it. I know I can talk to it. I know it was successful in the past so that I could do it again. So, like the next step was, okay, now my goal currently is to qualify for the World Championships. But I'm trying to like internally figure out that like is that something that I am really just wanting to do or is that

38:01something that's also being influenced from the fact that I know it's been successful in the past because I think ultimately I need to be really excited about what I'm doing because that's what makes my content work because it's just me like going through an experience and having fun with it. So I don't know. Um, one of like the big life goals at some point is I want to do a throughhike of the

38:23Pacific Crest Trail. Wow. I'm thinking I might start with like a smaller chunk of it at some point. Um, I don't know if that'll be soon or something, but yeah, I've got a bunch of different like random things that that there's a swim between two Hawaiian islands. It's like 10 miles that I want to try to do at some point. But yeah, I don't know. We we'll see. Like it it's weird to be able to do anything suddenly because I was like okay like what's the best thing to do cuz like the way my brain works is always like I need to make sure I'm optimizing for what's like

38:56the best. But I think in general I'm trying to just more so optimize for the stuff that I get excited about and that brings me joy and I think that that will naturally shine through and whatever I do as long as I'm enjoying it. Yeah. Yeah. I can just imagine a list in your phone that reads hardest things that a human being can do. It's just here's the next thing that I got to do to push myself and everything I could possibly do with

39:22my body. I think you're phenomenal and again I think you have this character about you and this discipline, hard work and resilience. It's going to take you such a far ways and it's really cool that I mean I get to watch this journey now unfold in terms of your next steps. I have this one final question for you, Noah. And I know I had mentioned this fact that I had scrolled down to your old YouTube videos and 12 years ago it was top 10 best backyard football catches. And it brings me back to my days when I was playing with my older brother as well. What would you tell

39:52that version of yourself if you could sit down and you're looking at him, the guy that's playing backyard football, that's posting his first YouTube video and seeing the successes that you've had today, what are you telling him about the journey that he's about to go on? M I I think to not take life so serious. I think the past couple years of my life especially, I've been too focused on the end result that you kind of lose focus of the journey a little bit. Um and that you can genuinely do anything that you want to do as long as you can be consistent with it and show up for it for a long

40:31period of time. like if you really want to do YouTube, dude, you could do YouTube. Um like I never would have really believed that. I think um the 12-year-old version of Noah or whatever that version of Noah was. But yeah, like I I feel like you can really do anything if you can keep showing up for it and you can stay consistent with it is the big piece of it that is very unsexy, but um it definitely pays dividends and it has paid dividends for me in the past

41:01couple years especially. You're amazing, Noah. Thank you so much for your time today. Yeah, absolutely, dude. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. I appreciate all the kind words, too.